1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field which has become known as the biofeedback field, and more particularly to a system which utilizes the conscious and subconscious physiological interactions between the visual stimulus and the neuronal pathways of the nervous system of a living organism, and a method for training the organism to control the waveform patterns of its bioelectrical signals for therapeutic or other purposes.
2. Prior Art
Disorders of the nervous system, such as epilepsy, have traditionally been treated by pharmaceutical and/or surgical procedures. My earlier inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,837,331 and 3,967,616 describe an alternative method for treating these disorders. The present invention is based upon the discovery that a living organism, typically an animal high on the intelligence scale, can control its brainwave patterns and bring about permanent or long-lasting changes thereto by a process of learning and, further, that the changes induced in the bioelectrical patterns can be such as to result in the substantial control of epileptic seizures, hyperkinesis, insomnia, depression and head trauma. Thus the present invention provides a safe and practical method and system enabling the application of this discovery in many fields including neurological therapy and brain research.
In the prior art, biofeedback training has been conducted using visual, audio and tactile feedback (current U.S. patent application Ser. No. 215,027 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,142). These feedback modalities as used in the past either alone or in combination with one another provided a certain degree of effectiveness depending upon the type of treatment and the individual patient. Visual feedback often was accomplished with lamps, meters and video displays. Lamp displays and meter displays often lost the interest of the patient in a short period of time. Video displays often only imitated the lamp and meter displays with colored bar graphs. A few added squiggly lines which followed an input waveform, and fewer added some type of simple animated graphics. With some therapies the treatment was effective but took long periods of time to accomplish the desired goals. Heretofore, the prior art has not disclosed a means or a method of presenting a visual display that is specifically designed to facilitate brainwave training as effectively as the present invented method and system. The present invention is based on the discovery that visual images of kinesthetic physical movement, when displayed as feedback for particular neurological signals, can improve the therapeutic biofeedback training of certain neurological disorders, thereby achieving new and beneficial results. In view of this discovery, the present invention teaches a means and a method by which such therapeutic biofeedback training can be carried out.